


Shared Space

by Ilthit



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-08 05:38:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19100791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilthit/pseuds/Ilthit
Summary: Emil's head is now free real estate.





	Shared Space

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a tropey self-challenge and the trope "Doppelgangers".

There is no sound of an engine chugging along underneath now, or the voices and clattering of people about their business, or the distant bleating of sheep. The light lingers long into the pale summer evening. Waves lap against the rock gently. Somewhere on the shore, a chaffinch finishes its brief song, only to begin again.

Emil squirms, turns, crawls into a ball, sighs, and spreads himself out again, eliciting a “hmh!” from Sigrun as his foot hits her side. By the sound of the snoring, she’s back to sleep within seconds. The quiet is nice, but he doesn’t see how anyone could sleep on a thin bit of padding on a curving rock, even after they’d made him row until his muscles screamed in protest and Reynir took pity on him. Which had not been very long at all.

Dusk has crept in by the time he finally slips into sleep. The black mists shift and change and he is back in the sleeping area in the tank, staring at the familiar contours of the ceiling. No cake tonight, it seems. His legs are tangled in the covers.

Lalli is there too, asleep under the bed, turned to the wall, his bony shoulder an accent against the shadows. Emil crawls out of bed and on to the floor and touches Lalli’s shoulder. “Hey. Looks like it happened again.”

The scout turns those inscrutable eyes on him but says nothing. It’s impossible to tell if he was ever asleep, or what passes for being asleep within a dream. Emil sits back on his haunches. “I had kind of hoped it did. I wish you told me what’s got you so worried about Onni. He seems like a guy who can handle himself. I know you tried to tell me, but… all I got was something, something, living somewhere, danger, and I think something about butterflies.”

Lalli crawls out from under the bed, limbs spider-like, staring intently at him. “I know you don’t like to talk,” Emil tells him. “You don’t have to. It’s just that… it would be nice to know what we’re getting into, here.”

Lalli smiles. Emil’s heart skips a beat. He’s never seen the scout smile like that. “W-what are you...”

“Emil.” The whispering voice comes from behind him. Another Lalli is standing in the doorway, eyes wide. “Emil, that’s _not me_.”

Emil whips around. The Lalli beside him has reached a hand out for him, and as he watches the flesh strips away from it, leaving only blackened husks of fingers.

“Wake up!”

Emil scrambles awake, finding himself already on his knees, facing the water. “Mikkel! Mikkel!” His voice cracks as he whisper-shouts for the teammate on guard duty. Just perpandicular to their tent, a troll is hauling itself out of the water, its claw-like fingers slipping on the wet rock. Behind it, it drags a bloated form like a spider’s belly.

Even Mikkel looks startled, though it takes him no more than a fraction of a second to pick up the axe beside him and two strides to finish the thing off. It slips down under the placid waters, its skull neatly split.

Reynir turns to his other side, apparently unbothered by the certain death that lurked less than a two metres away from him. Emil jumps as bony fingers dig into his arm, but it’s only Lalli—the real life, flesh and blood Lalli—crouching behind him. They share a worried look. That was too close.

Emil was on his knees when he woke up. Had he been about to go to the troll, let himself be dragged underwater and eaten? Because Lalli was in his head? Out here, that was… a risk they couldn’t afford.

There’s nothing to be said, however, at least not in the few words they share. Lalli pats Emil’s arm and returns to his own pallet, sitting up patiently.

"No, you go get sleep," Emil whispers to him. "I'll stay up."

The exasperated look the scout gives him is almost insulting. Emil can stay awake. He's not a child. However, he knows that between the two of them, Lalli is far more stubborn.

Mikkel waves and catches his eye, puts a finger on his mouth. Emil and Lalli nod at him in agreement. There is no need to tell the others before morning. They all need rest.

Emil bunks back down under Lalli's glare, only slightly swearing under his breath about _förbannande finnjävels_ and their stubbornness. In any case, he thinks, it's a wasted effort. There can certainly be no sleep for him now anyway, even with another day of travel ahead tomorrow. He expects to be exhausted in the morning, and with that thought drifts off into a dreamless sleep.

There is time enough to feel bad about it in the morning.


End file.
